The deadly 1906 earthquake in San Francisco changes the fate of three women in this historical novel. Sophie is a mail-order bride and Irish immigrant who agrees to marry widower Martin, despite her misgivings, and care for his mute five-year-old daughter Kat. Belinda is pregnant and looking for her husband. Meanwhile, another woman grieves hundreds of miles away. As the devastation from the earthquake unfurls, the women must do their best to not only survive, but discover the truth connecting them all.

From the publisher: "California, 1938—When she loses her parents in an accident, sixteen-year-old Rosanne is taken in by the owners of the vineyard where she has lived her whole life as the vinedresser’s daughter. She moves into Celine and Truman Calvert’s spacious house with a secret, however—Rosie sees colors when she hears sound. She promised her mother she’d never reveal her little-understood ability to anyone, but the weight of her isolation and grief prove too much for her. Driven by her loneliness she not only breaks the vow to her mother, but in a desperate moment lets down her guard and ends up pregnant. Banished by the Calverts, Rosanne believes she is bound for a home for unwed mothers. But she soon finds out she is not going to a home of any kind, but to a place that seeks to forcibly take her baby – and the chance for any future babies – from her. Austria, 1947—After witnessing firsthand Adolf Hitler’s brutal pursuit of hereditary purity—especially with regard to 'different children'—Helen Calvert, Truman’s sister, is ready to return to America for good. But when she arrives at her brother’s peaceful vineyard after decades working abroad, she is shocked to learn what really happened nine years earlier to the vinedresser’s daughter, a girl whom Helen had long ago befriended. In her determination to find Rosanne, Helen discovers a shocking American eugenics program—and learns that that while the war had been won in Europe, there are still terrifying battles to be fought at home."

Meissner takes us back to the London Blitz through the eyes of two sisters. Fifteen-year-old Emmy Downtree dreams of becoming a fashion designer but her younger sister Julia needs her as they adjust to being evacuated from London and settling into their foster home in Cotswold. When the sisters get separated, one will carry a burden for the rest of her life, until she meets a young American scholar who is eager to learn her secrets. Enjoyable and moving. 

The publisher says this novel is about a "family grappling with hidden secrets, with the echoes of the past, and with the realization that ignoring tragic situations won’t make them go away." Add Audible narration for $7.49.

A friend with great taste pushed this paperback into my hands and told me to read it as soon as possible, which is my favorite way to discover a great book. Publishers Weekly calls this novel "potentially life-changing," saying it's "the kind of inspirational fiction that prompts readers to call up old friends, lost loves or fallen-away family members to tell them that all is forgiven and that life is too short for holding grudges." That's hard to resist.

When I got together with a bunch of writers recently we all talked about how much we loved Susan Meissner. Her most recent novel, published November 2015, begins in modern-day times when a distinctive green velvet hat is mistakenly dropped off for resale at a vintage clothing shop. The hat is instantly recognizable as one that Scarlett O'Hara wore in Gone with the Wind; it disappeared during filming and hasn't been seen since. Of course the hat has a long, strange history, and Meissner takes us back in time to 1938 Hollywood, where two young friends are trying to make it in Tinseltown, each in their own way. This isn't my favorite Meissner novel, but it's a solid one, and Gone with the Wind fans won't want to miss it.

This has been on my TBR for a while, because so many historical fiction fans recommended this to me as Meissner's best novel. The action goes back and forth in time between two women, a century apart, who are linked by a beautiful scarf and by their unlikely survival in two devastating tragedies in New York City. Meissner's tone makes this an easy, enjoyable read despite the tough subject matter—I read this in a day.

From the author of Secrets of a Charmed Life. The publisher says, "Content in her comfortable marriage of 22 years, Jane Lindsay never expected to watch her husband, Brad, pack his belongings and walk out the door of their Manhattan home. But when it happens, she feels powerless to stop him and the course of events that follow Brad's departure. Jane finds an old ring in a box of relics from a British jumble sale and discovers a Latin inscription in the band along with just one other word: Jane. Feeling instant connection to the mysterious ring bearing her namesake, Jane begins a journey to learn more about the ring-and perhaps about herself. In the 16th-century, Lucy Day becomes the dressmaker to Lady Jane Grey, an innocent young woman whose fate seems to be controlled by a dangerous political and religious climate, one threatening to deny her true love and pursuit of her own interests. As the stories of both Janes dovetail through the journey of one ring, it becomes clear that each woman has far more influence over their lives than they once imagined."

Brette can see ghosts—she's had the sight since she was a child, same as her grandmother. When she's summoned by an uneasy ghost to put to rest unfinished business on the Queen Mary, she feels she has no choice but to comply. That summons plunges her into the fascinating and fraught history of the hundreds of war brides the ship carried across the ocean following the war—and one particular mystery that has never been solved. Reminiscent of Kate Morton, but with ghosts. A paperback original. Publication date: March 14.

When I got together with a bunch of writers recently we all talked about how much we loved Susan Meissner. From the publisher: "As a young bride, Susannah Page was rumored to be a Civil War spy for the North, a traitor to her Virginian roots. Her great-granddaughter Adelaide, the current matriarch of Holly Oak, doesn’t believe that Susannah's ghost haunts the antebellum mansion looking for a pardon, but rather the house itself bears a grudge toward its tragic past. When Marielle Bishop marries into the family and is transplanted from the arid west to her husband's home, it isn’t long before she is led to believe that the house she just settled into brings misfortune to the women who live there. With Adelaide's richly peppered superstitions and deep family roots at stake, Marielle must sort out the truth about Susannah Page and Holly Oak— and make peace with the sacrifices she has made for love."

In the spirit of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, this novel centers on the friendship that blooms between two young American girls interned at a Texas camp during World War II, and the force that reconnects them decades later. Fourteen-year-old Elise lived her whole life in Iowa; her parents had been in the States twenty years before the war. Mariko grew up in L.A., but was sent to the camp with her Japanese family. I learned so much about this shameful period of American history from these pages.

The 1918 Spanish flu epidemic isn't nearly as unfamiliar to us as it was a year ago—now that we've seen a pandemic firsthand and witnessed countless charts, graphs, and comparisons to the past. But when Meissner was writing this book, it was little known to contemporary readers. In fact, even many months after it was published, Meissner bemoaned that though 50 million people died of the 1918 influenza, we appeared then to be making little effort to remember. In her novel, Pauline Bright and her husband are newly arrived in Philadelphia with their three daughters; they hope to give their girls a chance at a better life. But shortly after arriving in Philadelphia, the great illness that came to be known as the Spanish flu meets them in their new city, bringing loss and heartache in its wake. But there's also hope, as the family takes in a baby orphaned by the illness. (Please be mindful of whether you're ready to read a pandemic tale before picking this one up!)

When we talked to author Susan Meissner for Stay at Home Book Tour, she mentioned this was the easiest book she ever wrote. Her description: "Left standing at the altar, Daisy Murien opens a secondhand wedding dress boutique, hoping to soothe her broken heart by giving beautiful bridal gowns a second chance at romance. When the retired Episcopal priest who blesses the tiny blue hearts Daisy sews into each dress falls ill, his recently divorced son arrives in St. Paul with plans to whisk his ailing father away. A contest of wills begins between two stubborn—and hurting—souls. It's while fighting to keep Father Laurent close that Daisy finally begins to understand why she has convinced every potential buyer not to purchase the one gown that started her business—her own."